And so with the sunshine and great bursts of leaves growing on trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with summer. -F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

News and Reminders: We are closed this Monday, June 12th for in-service.

We have our upcoming Summer Solstice Stroll on June 21st. We will meet at 5:45 pm in front of Town Hall then head down the Rec Path for a summer walk. We will end with some ice cream. We hope you will all join us!

Our Food Program starts on Tuesday! If you haven't told us that your child will be joining the program please send Sarah an email as soon as possible. We are really looking forward to having shared meals together. For group snack, please only bring morning snack. MVS will provide afternoon snack.

Please look at the pictures below about the new additions to our hill in the back playground. We are creating and"edibles hill". We added several plants that we can eat and will add more for the bunnies too. If you have anything to add from home (rhubarb, chamomile, lavendar etc.) please let us know and bring some to school. We would be happy to add more. We are planning on using many of the plants for sun tea recipes and maybe even make some different types of balm this fall.

Classroom Updates

Infant I
This week we have returned to eating our morning meal at the table. It gives us the opportunity to look at and talk with each other while eating. We also have to practice staying seated in our chairs, keeping our hands and food to ourselves, and letting teachers know when we are finished. Outside a big focus has been banging and clanging on the green tunnel, the louder the better! We use spoons, containers, sticks, and even watering cans to bang on it, then raise our voices to match. It turns into quite a rhythmic clamor. We hope to start some mornings next week with half of the group outside, so be on the lookout for us on your way into school.

Infant II
This week we enjoyed getting outside early in the morning when the first children arrived. In the mornings we have a lot of energy and tend to want to move around. The weather has been so nice that's made for very pleasant mornings. Spending time in the sensory table and with different art mediums has also been a big focus for us as well. Check out the new art on the walls. We also enjoyed exploring flour in the sensory table. We scooped it, patted it, and watched the ways it moved through the air. Stacking legos and circular pegs kept us busy and focused as we worked hard to line up the different types of building materials. Next week we will continue our artistic endeavors and maybe even bring some outside.

Toddlers
We had a wonderful week in our classroom. We are really enjoying our art time in the morning before  snack. This week we worked with colored pencils at the easel. We also are enjoying having more independence with using art materials at the easel. By the end of the week we were painting at the easel with our own paint cups. We used blue and red paint, mixing them together to make purple. The children are really enjoying the morning art time and get excited when we start talking about the easel. This week we enjoyed jumping in puddles in the rain and running through the water from the hose when it was warm. Rain or shine, we are happy.

Preschool
The children extended a warm welcome to our newest classmate this week. Everyone found a way to help the new child feel like a part of our community, either through sharing toys or invitations of "Let's play". Some of the younger children are getting much better at asking their peers to play by specifying names and activities with their words instead of their actions. One highlight of the week was a great circle time with the children singing "Down by the Bay" as they played shakers and Shannon played the ukulele. The children are also now working on rubbing in their own sunscreen. For bugspray, they spread their arms and legs out "like a starfish: and help count to 10 as a teacher sprays. Scaffolding their self-care now will really pay off later this summer.

Preschool II
This week we enjoyed watching the roofers next door finish their big project. Many of the children also worked on their own "roofing" projects here at school. They used blocks and tools from around the playground to create their own work zone. Dramatic play continued to be very dynamic and creative as we pretended to be sharks and engaged in the game of tag. We spent a considerable amount of time working on our verbal negotiation skills with one another and recognizing when our emotions were too strong. We talked about calming down, expressing ourselves clearly, and how to approach difficult social situations.

PreK
We've had a great week in prek. We are enjoying learning about ants. We learned that ants use scenses like we do. We tried using just our sense of smell to fin other "ants" in our "any families" using cotton balls with essential oils. Another highlight this week was our hike up Sunset Rock. It was a long climb (and even longer walk back) but we had a great time and really enjoyed our picnic. Jacob came along and re-discovered a "mystery box" that someone had hidden in the root system of a downed tree. He added everyone's names to the notebook inside.

Planting on what we are nowing calling our  "edibles hill". 

We added chives, mint, and chocolate mint. Next week we will add more plants. Please let us know if you have any to contribute.